Napoleon Bonaparte Brown
| death_place = St Joseph, Missouri, United States | occupation = Businessman and Philanthropist | salary = | spouse = Katherine Fitzgibbons(second wife) | children = Earl Van Dom Brown | networth = | website = }} Napoleon Bonaparte Brown (1834 – March 18, 1910) was a soldier, businessman, philanthropist, politician, and resident of Kansas and Missouri in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He is most known as the namesake and builder of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas, a majestic opera house completed in 1907 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The theatre has been called "the most elegant theater between Kansas City and Denver." Early life Brown was named after Napoleon Bonaparte by his parents James & Nancy Brown. The 1850 Pike County, Illinois census gives his age as 16 at that time. A later census (1900) in Concordia, KS gives his birthdate as Oct 1833.1900 Cloud County, Kansas Census He appeared to have two siblings: a brother, Benjamin age 14; and a sister named May or Mary aged 11 listed in the census as well.1850 Pike County, Illinois Census Later military records list his hometown as Concord, Illinois in neighboring Morgan County. until he resigned on January 17, 1865 Military career "Colonel" Brown enlisted in the 101st Illinois Infantry on January 3, 1864 and given the rank of Major (United States). Major Brown served in "B" Company until he resigned on January 17, 1865--the very day the 101st crossed into South Carolina from Georgia under General William Tecumseh Sherman. Cloud county records show that he was paid the pension ($25.00) of a major. After he retired from the military, he "promoted himself" to the rank of Colonel. In a letter to the editor of the Kansas Blade (now the Concordia Blade-Empire), Brown claimed that he enlisted as a private on April 22, 1862 and was subsequently promoted to Captain, Major, and Brevet-Lieutenant Colonel.Concordia Blade-Empire "NB Brown's War Record-His slanderers Laid on Stretchers", June 2, 1882 Business & Philanthropy Colonel Brown served in the state legislatures for both Kansas and Missouri and was a prominent banker in Kansas during its early years of development as the owner of the first bank in Cloud County, Kansas.Inside Cloud "Happy 100th Birthday Brown Grand Theatre" by Jenny Acree, September 21, 2007 N. B. Brown & Co., founded in 1878 with a rumored "suitcase full of money" that he had with him upon his arrival. Colonel Brown and is wife Katherine (Katie) then built Brownstone Hall, a 23-room Victorian-style stone mansion built in Concordia in 1883. Colonel Brown served first in the Missouri House of Representatives,http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/historicallistings/molegb.asp and then in the Kansas State Senate.http://www.kslib.info/legislators/membb3.html In 1905, Colonel Brown commissioned the building of the Brown Grand Theatre and entrusted its completion to his son, Earl Van Dom Brown. The theatre was completed in 1907.The Emporia Gazette "The Brown Grand Theater" February 23, 2009 Politics As a state Senator in Kansas, Brown fought a losing battle to restore the State Normal School's location to Concordia. The school was one of several Normal schools placed throughout the state in 1874 under governor Thomas A. Osborn, but was consolidated by the state legislature in 1876.[http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/cloud/1903/concordia2.shtml#16404 Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas] "State Normal School" by E.F. Hollibaugh, 1903 The state normal school would later become Emporia State University. References * Bell, Rachel Lowrey (1998a). A Proud Past... A Pictorial History of Concordia, Kansas, Marceline, Missouri: D-Books Publishing. * Emery, Janet Pease (1970a). It Takes People to Make a Town, Salina, Kansas: Arrow Printing Company. Library of Congress number 75-135688. External links * Brown Grand Theatre * Google search Category:1834 births Category:1910 deaths Category:People from Cloud County, Kansas Category:United States Army officers Category:Union Army officers Category:People of Kansas in the American Civil War Category:Members of the Missouri House of Representatives Category:Kansas State Senators